I know this is a weird question but what are some safeties that are pretty easy to get into (Maybe more than 50-60% acceptance rate) but also when looked at on resume for example would still sound good. I know a lot of you may bash me for thinking prestige is important but it is genuinely important for me as I believe it's an important thing to put on my resume.
Let’s goo, ucla and ucb are my safeties!! (/s)
Real. Rice is my one safety right now. Im applying so some pretty low competition schools ( mit stan penn cmu) so I inly need one decent safety.
Rice…is not a safety. For anyone.
Did bro miss the /s
Uw madison, rutgers, uiuc, osu, umd are within t50 and have 40-60% acceptance rates
Those acceptance rates are grossly inflated by instate students. And apart from very niche majors the acceptance rates are much lower.
I mean they only asked for prestigious schools with high acceptance rates so…
Quite the opposite. It's more that the acceptance rate is low for a couple of specific major (mainly CS) and quite high for everything else.
The really high acceptance rates for those schools are things students don't want to major in OOS public schools like applied health, kinesiology, agriculture, labor relations, leisure studies/hospitality, aviation, education, social work, etc. Basically career/occupational type majors that don't tend to lead to lucrative or competitive fields that are very lucrative for the top students.
It is why the overall acceptance rates are so high. Those schools have those majors because they are beneficial to the state and were created in mind for the local workforce to benefit the state. Not for OOS or international students looking for lucrative careers.
UIUC admission rates have dropped significantly in recent years. They went from ~60% in 2020 to 43.7% in 2023. And that number is inflated by instate acceptances. Regardless of major, it’s definitely less than 40% for OOS applicants. There’s a reason they call it a public Ivy.
We have to be careful with 40-60% acceptance it is not accurate big lesson s24 parent learnt from this year )) our school counselor at top private school shared with my son only if school has more than 80% acceptance it is safety and likely .
Thanks!
The obvious answer is the flagship state university at one of the top 20 or so, assuming that there isn't a big out-of-state differential issue. But given the cost differential, this is almost always the best safety to start with anyway. UWash, UWisc, UIUC, OSU, Purdue are good places to consider.
Among the private colleges, GW, RPI and Syracuse come to mind, but the cost-differential makes them unattractive against the public alternatives in the absence of significant aid.
Agreed, Syracuse is a state school experience at private school prices.
User deleted comment
5d
it’s not ranked higher due to how expensive it is, if you’re referring to the us news ranking list. they updated that list recently to cater to people who want to attend cheap schools.
Rhodes College in Memphis. The College of Wooster in Ohio. Both are first-rate institutions offering superior academic programs. Very highly respected by the educational community.
Penn State for sure. One of the best alumni networks in the world.
Idk about the acceptance rate for a safety though
Another thing to consider are safeties with a high return on investment, rather than prestige. For example, Loyola University Marylands’s Selinger School of Business is in the top 40 in rankings that measure outputs like internship placement, and early and mid career salaries.
Berkeley data science
Doesn’t the Data Science major have a ~10% acceptance rate? (I guess it’s around 5x Berkeley CS’s acceptance rate, but still less than the 50-60% of regular safeties haha)
Mb I forgot ur chances are significantly increased if you’re in state
Theyre not really though, Ucs are an exception to most state schools in that regard
Heh
Ehe
Isn’t that only masters?
? Berkeley has DS for undergrad in their CDSS school
Isn’t UCB very hard to get into for undergraduate.
Berkeley is definitely NOT a safety or likely for any student
Yes. Whoever thought it was a safety is not aware of how competitive UC admissions are
User deleted comment
6d
Where can I find info about Data Science at UCB? I’d love to do Data Science instead of CS if that means getting into UCB lol. Also what are the requirements and stuff, do you know where I can find more info?
Data science is ~10%, CS is ~2%, EECS is 4-7%
If you just want to go to Berkeley pick a different major. DS is very tough. But if you have a ton of AP/IB credits and go to a California community college for a year taking the right set of classes and earning good grades you have a pretty strong shot at transfer admission in some less popular majors. Keep in mind the freshman admission percentage for the university overall is 11%. Transfer admission rates are much higher because only highly qualified and interested students apply.
https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/about-us/information-center/transfers-major
Used to be any Berkeley student could major in DS but they have created a new college for computer science, data science and statistics and everything is changing. I don’t even think the faculty know exactly how things will look in 5 years. They are dramatically shrinking the number of CS students and DS as well - both have become very difficult to switch into. And even as a California CC transfer student (much better odds than as a freshman if you can ace your GE and prerequisites) admit rates for CS (5%), EECS (11%) and DS (15%) are hardly in the safety range.
Berkeley might be a safety if you are a 4.0 Cali CC transfer student majoring in something like Japanese, art history or American studies (acceptance rates are over 60%). But for most majors as a freshman even a strong in-state student is lucky to get into a couple of UCs in a medium popular major like political science. There are just so many good applicants that there isn’t space for everyone qualified to thrive.
It’s easy to add DS as a major in Berkeley. It’s only CS that they’ve been blocking all the routes into. Especially for majors like Econ, DS is a popular double major and it’s very easy to add on. Now if you want to add CS as a major that’s a completely different story
You could also apply to Berkeley for some super niche major like Energy Engineering and switch or add majors once you’re in
It WAS easy. It doesn’t look like that’ll necessarily be true going forward. In any case with an 11% acceptance rate it’s not a “safety” for most freshmen. Not even if you have high stats.
Even back when the admit rate was 25% it wasn’t a safety. My daughter’s friend is still mad she didn’t get into Berkeley or UCLA despite near perfect grades and SAT scores (back when test scores were considered), 12 AP classes, solid leadership in a wide range of extracurricular activities. She did get into at least 1 Ivy + Duke and had a Regent’s scholarship at UCSD and a full ride at NYU.
The only way a UC can be a safety is as a transfer student using the TAG guaranteed admission program. Which Berkeley and UCLA don’t participate in.
for undergrad or masters?
Reed College - more hard-core academically than the ivies (30.8% acceptance rate)
St. John’s College - weird school, great books curriculum, has enormous cachet when applying to graduate school (49.9% acceptance rate)
Carleton College - arguably a peer school to the little Ivies (16.6% acceptance rate)
Fordham University - beautiful, old university in New York City (54.1% acceptance rate)
Eugene Lang College of the New School - artsy/edgy liberal arts college in NYC, far better than its acceptance rate would suggest (87% acceptance rate)
Bard College - incredibly good school, kind of like Reed College in its academic rigor, beautiful campus (60% acceptance rate)
Bucknell University - could easily have been an Ivy, has great academics (32.6% acceptance rate)
these aren’t safeties. reed, carleton are reaches
Perhaps—but Reed is known for taking bright students who didn’t shine in high school.
that doesn’t make it a safety. a safety is a school that you know you will get into, which reed is not.
Go Rams 🐏 🐏🐏 (Honestly consider it because you get great scholarships if you were an overachiever in hs + lots of connections + school year city internships)
thank u for this!
I'd say a lot of the Big10 schools. OSU comes to mind. Northwestern, UCLA, USC and Michigan are not safety schools.
Prestige arises not because of quality of a school but how popular it is and difficult to get into. So, a safety school may provide a brilliant education but never be prestigious among the general public.
UIUC's engineering acceptance rates (besides mechE, EE, CS of course) are pretty high but it's generally considered one of the best schools for engineering. idk anyone who didn't get in. same with purdue. either that or my high school was feeder
UIUC for engineering is a reach. No matter how strong an applicant is.
i’d argue for high stats people it could be a target for engineering (not CS) because most of them are 20-40% even for oos https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t79utYMi7c-7nRVH3l-TifBIqlaJYu1o/view?usp=drivesdk
Interesting statistics. Where is chemical engineering?
The admit rate for UIUC Grainger Engineering is 22%. And that’s inflated by instate admissions. Comp Sci is 7.9% - OOS admissions would be considerably less. The definition of ‘reach’ is anything under 20-30%. So, yeah, UIUC is definitely a reach.
for a lot of majors it isn't a reach - civil and industrial engineering for example
rose hulman for engineering is about 50% but the school has a really good reputation and 100% of students get jobs within 2 months of graduating
Penn State maybe? UW-Madison if your in state,
Idk if this would be considered prestigious, but Texas A&M has such a strong alumni network/culture that graduating there would look rlly good to other alumni on a resume!
love Texas A&M with my whole heart but we are definitely not prestigious by any means lol
Grinnel ED
Maryland probably
bard college in NY. although i suspect it will become a reach as the years go by
Only a few fields do people care about the name of the school on your resume
If you’re in Texas, being in the top 6% guarantees admission to UT Austin.
That’s not a “safety”
if ur in the top 6% then its a safety
The top 6% rule only guarantees you admission to the liberal arts school. For any other major you have to apply and go against everyone else.
The purpose of a safety is to be feasible to the average applicant. Being the top 6% of your school is not average, and is therefore not a safety
everyone has different safeties. it doesn’t mean the same thing for everyone. any school that will guarantee admission to you based on a specific trait in your academic profile is a safety for you.
No, it’s not. The purpose of a safety is be a school that you, as an individual, are essentially guaranteed to get into. It has nothing to do whatsoever with feasibility for the average applicant
Eh, he just asked for a prestigious college that’s fairly easy to get in to, and a lot of people who would give a damn about prestigious colleges shouldn’t find it too difficult to be in the top 6%, especially considering the state of Texan public schools.
If you can pay, there are plenty of safer schools that offer prestige. These are smaller private schools reserved for “B” students with rich parents. For example, top undergrad only engineering programs ranked by USN have many schools that fit your criterion.
Penn state, IU, Iowa state,
ASU for Engineering. UPitt for science(esp Bio)
harvard
Depending on the major, IU Bloomington and Rutgers have strong job placement and Alumni networks.
Most employers don’t care that much about where you went to school. So pretty much any state school or well known private will do just fine
Stonybrook if ur in NY
Kelley IU
Rutgers
A&M if the recruiter is an aggie
Depends on your major. Purdue is very prestigious for engineering and has a high acceptance rate ~52% but will probably vary based on major and stats etc.
It all depends on where you are in high school. For example. if you live in Texas or Wisconsin and are in the top 5% of your class, Austin and Madison are top elite safeties. so look at your in-state public universities and check if they are top academic institutions.
Last, the College within a university could have a top rank college in a less prestigious university, and looking at the College you want to select is more important than the overall university
Without knowing the majors of interest, it’s hard to give useful information. There are lots on second tier liberal arts colleges that have good outcomes and have a decent reputation. For example, I have a kid that graduated Phi Beta Kappa from a liberal arts college in PA with a 50-60% acceptance rate. He’s fully funded in a PhD program at a top 10 national university. At some point, it’s not about where you go but what you do when you get there.
Apply to some Canadian schools
That’s an oxymoron
Rutgers New Brunswick, Purdue
Bard College, Wheaton College (MA), and Muhlenberg are all around 60% admit but still have some recognition and are excellent schools if you can afford them.
I wouldn’t go off acceptance rate as the marker of a safety. GW has like a 50% acceptance rate and FSU a 25% acceptance rate but it is significantly harder to get into GW than FSU. Schools attract different applicants and some might have a significantly higher percentage of high achieving applicants than another. I don’t know if there is a private school that is both “prestigious” and easy to get into in terms of stats. Maybe the closest is American or Syracuse but I would not call those safeties. Those schools are only a little less selective in terms of stats, ecs etc as UF, UT, UW, UCSB and so on, they just don’t have as many applicants on the low end as those state schools. It would not be weird for you to get into one of those state schools but not American or Syracuse. For state schools, Rutgers, Texas AM, Virginia Tech are pretty easy to get into and us news recently ranked them high, but most would not perceive them as “prestigious”. I would say there are no prestigious colleges that are easy to get into for all applicants/applicants with average grades and so on, but if you have ivy competitive grades and test scores, then UT, UF, villanova, Miami, gw, SMU, bucknell etc. All would fit the bill as safety-ish for someone with high stats, and all are well regarded. Safety is pretty relative so assuming you have high stats then those would be your best bet, but still it’s not guaranteed anyone will be accepted to those schools. That being said I wouldn’t put too much stock into “prestige”. The reality is it’s not the name on the resume that gets you the job, it’s who you know and experience. Prestigious schools have more resources (recruiters on campus, research opportunities and such)and more extensive alumni networks so that is why it helps land jobs.
Syracuse has been doing yield projection in the previous applicant cycle. I was far outside its range (in academics, tests, and extracurriculars) and got waitlisted and know a ton of people who had the same happen. I wouldn’t consider it a safety anymore for high achieving students.
there’s no such thing as a safety with prestige
Columbia GS
Case Western Reserve University
NOT a safety -- does it have 40-60% acceptance rates?
Not a safety.
A safety for one person may be a target or even reach for another. We'd need more info to seriously give you accurate advice.
That said, I would recommend looking into some public or state schools that are local to you.
--Tony, thePrincetonReview
UCLA linguistic and CS
User deleted comment
6d
Linguistic and CS is not the same a CS major, it is in the college of letters of science, part of the linguistic department, I’ve contacted the advisor and it’s easy to switch. And the acceptance rate is quite high.
TIL thank you. Should have gone for that lol but oh well
It not that good, don’t worry about it. It’s not a CS major, it’s more like CS with linguistic minor. Unless ur interested in NLP I wouldn’t recommend because it’s very niche.
Most state flagships